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At the end of this week I’ll be joining with a small group who will be embarking on a trip to the Middle East to meet with Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders working for peace.
The situation there is wrought with innumerable challenges. To help give you an inside perspective, I wanted to share this poem with you that was written by Samah Sabawai. She is a writer, playwright and poet from Gaza.
I hope you are moved by it and feel compelled to pray for peace in Gaza and around the globe.
Blessings…
Gaza, Where Time Stood Still
By Samah Sabawi
Don’t tell us a year has passed…
We don’t measure our lives by this calendar
Time has stood still for us so long ago
Punctuated only by loss and grief
And the in between moments of quite reprieve
We don’t count on Christmas, nor Eid for cheer
We don’t fool ourselves with “happy new year”
No occasion is ever taken for granted,
When it comes to tomorrow, there are no certainties
Our yesterday is our today
Time is frozen here
And one calendar year
Will never contain our lives,
Our collective misery,
Our yearning for humanity
Don’t tell us a year has passed
Our clock stopped ticking when justice collapsed
Eclipsed by decades of repression
Hush… don’t speak of time
We have endured the absence of time
We don’t measure our lives by days like you
We measure our lives by the number of embraces
Our worth by a lover’s heartbeat
Our existence by our persistence
So, don’t tell us a year has passed….
4 comments to “No ‘New Year’ in Gaza”
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Wow …
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*sigh*
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You can feel the desolation in her words. My prayer is that your efforts to bring about peace in this part of the world be fulfilled and that, Samah and the other citizens of Gaza, find peace and justice.
Beautiful, yet gut-wrenching poem.
Praying for peace in Gaza,
Mac